John,
The point the many seem to miss with Brett and his situation is that he
conditions his ponds like aquaculture farms, plus his water and the land in
which the ponds are positioned have a high concentration of mineral salts
anyway. I have spoken to him personally on this condition what "Salt" he
adds really his not in the same why many of on this list thinks about it,
plus in his grow out ponds for his big fish it is one per 1,000 gallons of
water and some are one fish 10,000 gallons of water.
His ponds are also not filtered, but are like a farm ponds, relaying on
rainfall for refilling.
Tom L.L.
"John Rutz" wrote in message
...
However, people like Brett have gone to Japan to
learn from
the masters and he has become an expert in koi breeding. Brett uses it
because the
Japanese use it and it works. Jo Ann uses salt because she has imported
thousands of
top quality Goldfish from the Chinese and they use it,
I copied this from a Japanese site
http://www.urban.ne.jp/home/koistaff/ikusei/eindex.html
Notice the comment on salt in the first part
REQUIREMENTS IN BREEDING
WATER
Fresh water only
KOIs can somehow live in salt water but it's not good in the long
run.
Water with 1% or under of salt will not do harm to KOIs in the
sense of health.
Water quality
Must be within the range from pH6.2 to 8.5. pH6.6`7.5 is the most
suitable
(in case of concreted pool and fish tankj
Water temperature
Must be within the range from 5 to 35 C 12`28C is the most suitable
At 25C, KOIs sharpen their appetite.
Do not feed when the water temperature is under 12C. It is assumed
that it's better to change
water temperature according to the seasons ( somehow higher in
summer and somehow lower in winter)
This is because KOIs have been created and developed in Japan where
there are four seasons.
Water hardness
Use water of under 150ppm.
Water of under 50ppm is preferable.
Soft water is defined to be under 50ppm.
Nitrate
Must be under 5.5. 2.0ppm or under is the most suitable
Dissolved oxygen
At least 5ppm is required.@
As well water contains quite few or no oxygen, such water must be
aerated before being used.
Reference@electric conductivity(Ęr/)
Water of 450`150(Ęr/)is usually used.
Water shoud be poor in iron,namely under 0.1ppm.
Water under 0.05ppm in iron is ideal.
yGenerally speaking, KOIs are easier to breed than tropical fish
or goldfish. But be careful to keep them away from diseases. z
John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico
good judgement comes from bad experience, and that comes from bad
judgement
see my pond at:
http://www.fuerjefe.com